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I got confused about who was writing what and wrote stuff on both of last Saturday’s puzzles. So this one is a duplicate… another excuse for putting it up is that I referred to links in it in a comment yesterday.

Solving time 10:23

This little conundrum is a super example of the fun that can be had with a theme. It’s all about COUNTDOWN, whose name belongs in capital letters. I don’t know whether solvers of the syndicated Indy xwd in overseas papers got a different puzzle – if not, they could have been very baffled indeed.

So, Monopoly a couple of weeks ago, now Countdown – what game will we get next? Faites vos jeux …

Across

1

CO(LLI)NS – ref. Michael Collins, an Irish Revolutionary leader, but really it’s this Collins, as 15/2 says. Keep that link if you don’t know it – it’s the most useful free British dictionary on the web.

5/2

DESMOND LYNAM – anag. the old smoothie “housewife’s favourite” who was a great pick to take over from the late 29/18. STOP PRESS: The Wikipedia entry on Countdown linked above reveals that he gives way to Des O’Connor just after Christmas. Sorry Des, but I think I prefer Des.

9

ANNULUS – Lat. for ring. Looks as if there could be a cheekier(!) clue about another kind of ring…

DICTIONARY CORNER – where Susie is indeed found, along with this week’s celeb guest. Never quite sure how much of the “we found an 8″ is down to the celeb – my guess is that Susie does about 99% of the work. One of those thematic clues that’s just a plain def once the penny has dropped

19

TH(REEP=peer rev.)ENCE

22

OPIUM WARS – opium often being consumed in dens (so they tell me)

25/8

COUNT=noble, DOWNER=depressant, and the clues referred to include a countdown – THREEpence, neTWOrk, balONEy

28

RORQUAL = type of whale – hidden word.

29/18

RICHARD WHITELEY – the original host, who died in June 2005.

28

B(ALONE)Y = times = (multiplied) “by”. Nice bit of cheek.

Down

1

CHAMBERS – cryptic def. and this, with one from the top row, makes our ‘dictionary corner’. You can search a Chambers dictionary for free on their website, but it’s their “21st Century Dictionary”, not the one used by crossword setters – they have to make money at some point! Web skinflints should probably stick to the Collins one – just trying a couple of odd words from yesterday’s Times, it had oud and restharrow, on which the Chambers site drew a blank.

6

SPOO=oops rev.,L=lecturer

7

OUT(STAR)ED

16

C(UP,MARK)ED – cup marks are seen on Stone Age stones. Slightly desperate entry to let the theme words fit, but that’s easily forgiven.

23

MOOL=loom rev.,A – ‘moola’ is yet another slang term for money. My favourite is OOF, because of the wacky derivation – see Chambers

24

SCRUB – I think – don’t actually understand this one!

25

C,AROL = oral with vowels swapped. Brilliant inclusion of the things she dishes up to the contestants. I wonder whether the setter spent any time trying to get VORDERMAN into the grid? – Carol Vorderman looks like interesting anagram territory.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 8:55 am and is filed under Independent.
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